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Thursday, June 28, 2012

Jose Bautista's June Swoon

In the wake of all the pitching injuries, it can be easy to dwell on the negative things surrounding the Toronto Blue Jays. The starting rotation may be in shambles, but there are a lot of things to be thankful for right now; namely Jose Bautista.

Joey Bats has been one of the few beacons of optimism on this roster, and what he's done in the month of June alone has been nothing short of amazing. Some might have thought Bautista's power had suddenly been zapped after he was the home run king the past two seasons.

Boy, were they wrong.

And just like that, the Bautista we all know and love is back. And now he's breaking franchise records in what I'd like to call Jose Bautista's "June Swoon". Here are just a few incredible stats from Bautista's standout month:

Home Runs in June

13

1st in MLB

SLG in June

.756

1st in MLB

Walks in June

19

1st in Major Leagues

RBI's in June

26

1st in Major Leagues

Runs in June

21

2nd in Major Leagues

On Base Streak

24 Games

Snapped June 26th

On Tuesday, Jose Bautista had his 24 game on base streak snapped. Incredibly, Jose reached base in all but one of 24 games he played in the month of June. And during those 24 games, he was held hitless during just 5 contests.

Or how about this? Jose Bautista has just only one more strikeout (14) in the month of June than he does home runs (13). Compare that with Adam Dunn who has the second most home runs in the Majors with 24, he struck out 39 times while hitting 8 home runs in June.

Yesterday, Bautista set a new Blue Jays franchise record for home runs in a single month with 13. That broke the previous record set by Carlos Delgado in August of 1999 and Jose Cruz Jr. in August of 2001.

For having this incredible of a season, it's quite remarkable that Bautista's BABIP is this criminally low. At a measly .167 batting average on balls in play, Jose has had to resort to hitting bombs to avoid making an out.

Jose Bautista only hit 7 singles the entire month, but 13 home runs. How is this even possible? I guess Jose really doesn't trust hitting the ball on the ground, and he'd much rather go deep to ensure he collects a hit.

As you can see by his spray chart, Bautista has peppered his singles mostly through the middle, while the rest of his hits in June have gone deep for home runs. Talk about feast or famine at the plate.

Here are just a few more incredible facts during Jose Bautista's "June Swoon"; he's seen 37 sinkers from right handed pitchers this month, and not swung and missed on a single one. Jose has seen 36 fastballs from lefties, and not swung and missed on a single one.

What really makes Jose Bautista's June standout is over the course of his career with the Blue Jays, he hasn't quite had a standout month like he is during June. And to think, there are still three games left in the month!

In his record-breaking 2010 season, Bautista never hit more than 12 home runs in a single month. In 2011, he never hit more than 11. Basically, Bautista has been the poster boy for consistency when it comes to power these last two plus seasons.

The starting rotation may be in survival mode right now, but so long as Jose Bautista keeps swinging a hot stick as he has in June, he'll easily compensate for all the pitching deficiencies. Let's just sit back and enjoy Jose Bautista's "June Swoon".

I'm I goofing this one? It seems that the 0.5% HR batted ball stat has to be way off, and that the true number must be much higher. 0.5% means that 1 out of 200 batted balls by Bautista is a home run. He has 13 HRs in 25 games (as of the time of this blog posting). This means that if 0.5% is accurate, Bautista has batted 2600 balls this month. If we assume an average of 4 at bats in 25 games, and 5 pitches per at-bat (a more than generous estimate), he would only have seen about 500 pitches.

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About the Blue Jay Hunter

The Blue Jay Hunter is a blog about the Toronto Blue Jays, which takes a look at the team under the microscope. Mixed in with just a hint of humour, and a shred of dignity. I also have an affinity for baseball moustaches.